May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Republican leaders rallied behind
presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney as President Barack
Obama officially began his re-election bid in the swing states
of Ohio and Virginia.

Newt Gingrich and Representative Michele Bachmann of
Minnesota, who both dropped out of this year’s Republican
primary contest, said Romney, 65, would prove better at creating
jobs and reducing the country’s debt than Democrat Obama. Each
had criticized Romney during the primary campaign for failing to
be sufficiently conservative.

“Compared to Barack Obama, Mitt Romney is a solid
conservative,” Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives, said yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation”
program. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve endorsed him.”

The onetime Republican candidates spoke a day after Obama
officially started his campaign by giving back-to-back speeches
emphasizing populist themes and signs of economic progress since
he was elected in 2008. The economy will be the dominant issue
in the November election and Obama is seeking to make the case
that, while the recovery has been uneven, his presidency has
helped pull the U.S. out of a recession and reduced the
unemployment rate.

“There have been disappointments, but we didn’t quit,”
Obama, 50, said. “Together, we are fighting our way back.”

‘Rubber Stamp’

Obama said Romney would be a “rubber stamp” for
congressional Republicans who want to cut education funding,
pare Medicare and rewind economic and regulatory policies to
those in place before the recession.

Romney and the Republicans “think the same bad ideas will
lead to a different result,” Obama told a crowd of supporters
in Richmond May 5. “I’m here to say that we were there, we
remember, and we are not going back. We are moving this country
forward.”

American employers in April added the fewest number of jobs
in six months and wages stagnated, adding to concern that the
nearly three-year-old economic expansion is cooling. The 115,000
increase in payrolls was less than forecast, Labor Department
figures showed last week in Washington.

Both campaigns are preparing for a close election, with the
most recent Gallup daily tracking poll, completed May 4, showing
the race essentially tied. Obama received support from 46
percent of those polled and Romney got 45 percent. The margin of
error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

‘Net Plus’

The economy will be a “net plus” for the president once
voters consider Romney’s platform on taxes and regulation,
Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said yesterday on
CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.

Romney “wants to give further tax breaks to the wealthiest
among us,” Schumer said. “He wants to further deregulate many
industries. That’s what got us into this trouble to begin
with.”

Obama described Romney as a patriotic American who has been
a successful businessman and the governor of Massachusetts.

“But I think he has drawn the wrong lessons from those
experiences,” Obama said May 5. “He sincerely believes that if
CEOs and wealthy investors like him make money the rest of us
will automatically prosper as well.”

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a potential Republican vice
presidential pick, called the latest jobs report “abysmal” and
said Obama was trying to blame Republicans for the country’s
current economic condition because his own polices have failed.

“Things keep getting worse under his watch,” Rubio said
yesterday on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “He doesn’t want
to run on that record.”

‘Fix’ Economy

Obama “asked us to hire him four years ago on the promise
that he knew how to fix this economy,” Rubio said. “That’s the
standard we should judge him by. The standard he set.”

He said Hispanics have been disproportionately affected by
the administration’s “bad policies with regards to the
economy.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Vice
President Joe Biden defended the administration’s economic
record, saying the slowing of job growth in April doesn’t
indicate the economy is stagnating.

“There’s still a lot of people in trouble,” Biden said.
“But there’s no stagnation.”

The administration’s economic policies have created a
“steady path” for recovery that would be quicker had
Republicans not blocked some stimulus proposals, Biden said.

Swing State

Support for Obama may decline in the swing state of
Virginia, which the president won in 2008 with the help of
turnout among African-Americans and college students, Tom Davis,
a former Republican Representative from the state, said on CNN’s
“State of the Union” program. The president also may not do as
well the northern part of the state, where the voters who
supported him in 2008 are among the wealthiest in the country,
Davis said.

“When you start putting a bull’s-eye on people making over
$100,000, $250,000 a year, that’s where they live and I think
it’s going to be some problems for the president moving down the
line,” Davis said, referring to the Obama administration’s
backing for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.